Pashtuns are believed to be the largest segmentary lineage society in the world today. They have been living in their defined homeland areas since ages, in a social order loosely defined by the code of Pashtunwali.

They believe in the myth that they are children of one common ancestor, Qaise, who converted to Islam once he met the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). However, there is historical evidence that Pashtuns did not convert in mass and as late as 12th century there were non-Muslim Pashtuns residing in tribal areas.

Being a leaderless society, the tribal system does not usually develop institutionalized political power. They feel that all Pashtuns are born equal and individuals can change the existing social and economic inequality. Tribals lead a semi independent life as per their code of conduct, managing their social issues and disputes through a council of elders known as Jirga. Invaders passed through the lands of some of these tribes for thousand of years, but did not bring any significant change in their social system.

In the post-Soviet times, civil order, economy and security were restored faster in the areas where the tribal system was dominant or intact

These tribes, on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, were almost independent. The Sikhs administered these areas by maintaining strong forces at district level; but the tribes openly asserted their independence. The relations of the British with the tribes depended on the situation in Afghanistan. They did not make any serious effort to penetrate the area except for some punitive expeditions and defending the passes which led to Afghanistan. The Durand Line divided tribes on both sides, but the British provided them with easement rights for their back and forth movement. They used the tribal areas as the second buffer between them and Russia, the first being Afghanistan.

After the creation of Pakistan, a special status was granted to these areas. They were declared Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Tribals were used as non-state actors in both the Kashmir wars of 1947-48 and 1965.

Until the 1970s, about 70% of the tribal areas were administratively inaccessible. No Pakistani official was allowed to enter. In 1973, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto formulated a policy of opening up of the tribal areas through development. An industrial unit was established in each agency. Two new agencies, Bajaur and Orakzai, were formed. Electricity was provided to some of the areas and road infrastructure was developed. Some of the areas that were opened up had tactical importance during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Most of the remaining inaccessible areas like Tirah and Shawal were partially opened in the aftermath of 9/11.

In the Pashtun social system, the inhabitants of a village are normally divided into three segments, the Pashtuns, Mian or Mullah (religious functionaries) and Kasabgars (professionals, like barbers and carpenters). The influential class has always been the Pashtuns. The Kasabgars have seldom challenged the authority of Pashtuns; they have concentrated on earning their livelihood and providing education to their children. A number of them excelled in fields like medicine, engineering, education, armed forces and even in politics. But once they make a name for themselves, they want to be known as Pashtun, by aligning with the tribe in whose area they were born and brought up.

The roles of the Khan or Malik and the government officials posted in the area are well defined. They derive legitimacy from state laws. The Mullah is made to perform only some religious rituals. And he is not content with this limited role. He wants his role to be defined and expanded to make him part of the decision-making process in the Pashtun society. Religious people have led almost all the Pashtun uprisings against invaders in history. Followers of Ahmed Shah Barelvi (1863) rose against Sikhs and the British, Pir Roshan (16th century) against Akbar, Sartor Faqir (1897) against the British, Powinda Mullah (1893-1913) also against the British. Faqir of Ipi (1935-1947) was also a key resistance fighter. The leadership of these movements remained with the Mullah only for the duration of the Jihad. When the battles were over, the Khans and Maliks became leaders again.

In the Pashtun society, Rawaj (custom) has generally been more dominant than religion. Music, dance, non-observance of pardha within a tribe, women shaking hands with men, were commonly seen in Pashtuns. They would perform all rituals religiously, but would never force these on others, except for fasting, which is considered an act of Pashtun honor.

The Afghan Jihad did not bring any significant change in the life of the average Pashtun. The Pashtun society started changing once preachers started going to these areas. They were peaceful, polite, and non-coercive, and they were able to persuade older Pashtuns to lay down some restrictions on the younger ones. Music, which was a regular feature of hujras and weddings, was banned in some areas.

But the event that really changed the Pashtun way of life was the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Talib was a familiar character in each Pashtun village, known as Chinay in Pashto. Docile, well mannered, quite, friendly, not interfering, not preaching, just concerned with his own task, collecting food for the imam of the mosque. In November 1994, once the Taliban captured Kandahar, nobody, including the intelligence agencies, was sure who they were, and who was supporting them. They suspected it was the US.

In the next few years, what the Taliban practiced was in contrast with Pashtun culture. Under the influence of Al Qaeda, they tried to implement Wahabi and Salafi culture. Inspired by them, the talibs of Pakistan also raised forces in Orakzai and North Waziristan. In the aftermath of 9/11 and NATO operations in Afghanistan, members of Al Qaeda, Pakistani Jihadis, secterian outfits, Uighur fighters from China, and groups from Central Asia took refuge in FATA and other parts of Pakistan. Jihadi organizations and some tribals supported them.

The state could not decide on the course of action to be taken against them. They had never seen such a situation in the past. The tribals suspected that state was supporting these elements, therefore they submitted to the Taliban, who used brute force against prominent tribal elders.

Taliban meet none of these criteria in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and therefore cannot be considered a Pashtun nationalist movement. They take ideological and political inspiration from Arabs and other non-Pashtuns. They have consciously, as a matter of policy, targeted different cultural traits of Pashtuns, like tribal councils and folk music; they are not concerned about the language and promote mostly Arabic and/or interestingly, Urdu; Economic resources or their control is not their concern; neither is any political or administrative manifestation of Pashtun identity their goal.

They have killed a large number of traditional Pashtun elders in FATA and banned the Jirga as means of dispute settlement in areas under their influence. They have been eliminating the Pashtun way of life.

Taliban have, as a matter of policy, targeted cultural traits of Pashtuns, like tribal councils and folk music; they are not concerned about Pashto and promote Arabic and/or Urdu
The term ‘Taliban’ referred to students of madrassas. The current use of the term started when Mullah Umar led some of those students to rise against the atrocities of the Mujahideen groups who had fought against the Soviet Union. In the beginning, even Americans considered them a force to counter pan-Islamists as well as the neighbouring Shia Iran. But very soon, international terrorists, mainly Al Qaeda, established connections with the Taliban.

Today, the only connection that they have with Pashtuns is that the term Taliban is a Pashto plural for the Arabic term Talib (student), and that they are using Pashtun territory. The only thing that unites these diverse groups is that they follow a particular brand of Islam. Quite a large number of them come from Punjab.

The Pakistani state considered the intervention of Soviet Union an opportunity to achieve long-cherished policy aims based on its threat perceptions from India. It had always considered Afghanistan’s closeness with India as against its security and also feared Afghan claims about the Durand Line. In this situation it had always seen the Pashtun nationalist with suspicion. The unitary post-colonial state of Pakistan had always considered all the pluralist democratic identity movements as a threat. Due to the Afghan connection, Pashtun identity politics and autonomy aspirations, even within Pakistan, were considered more so.

Pakistan’s use of religious extremists as a tool of policy began in early 1970s when most of the Mujahideen leaders who rose to fame in 1980s were backed to oppose President Daud’s government in Afghanistan. This policy was furthered later by promoting the Mujahideen amongst the resistance movement at the expense of Pashtun nationalists (Afghan Millat, one such Pashtun Nationalist Party from Afghanistan, was denied freedom of action in 1980s) amongst the anti-Soviet resistance. The Pakistani state aimed at a social and political engineering of Pashtuns. It was believed that a secular Pashtun cannot be trusted. There was similar mistrust of the secular freedom fighters in Kashmir too.

The Taliban were supported before 9/11 with the similar aims – as an alternative to those liberal Afghan Pashtuns who were getting increasingly fed up of the warring Mujahideen groups. Even after 9/11, Pakistan does not talk about Pashtun tribal elders or Pashtun nationalists of secular leanings when it expresses concern about Pashtun representation in Afghanistan.

In FATA, the current Taliban concentration includes a sizeable number of non Pashtuns and Al Qaeda. The extremist challenge in Punjab is taken to be a completely separate problem, and the very strong presence and role of Punjabis in FATA is often denied.

The approach also suits pan-Islamists because it makes it easier for them to use Pashtun territory on both sides of the Durand Line as a sanctuary and provides them with a constant source of of foot soldiers. They are aided by the lack of modern state governance in those area. But none of the insurgents talks about this lack of governance, or the rights of Pashtun in any part of Pakistan or Afghanistan.

On the contrary, Talibanisation is de-Pashunisation of the Pashtun, and may lead to the de-Pakistanisation of the Pashtun.

Source: TFT

Pakistan is finding it harder to convince outsiders it is not helping the Afghan Taliban and giving safe haven to its leaders.

In effect, the accusation is that Pakistan is betting on the insurgents being the strongest power in Afghanistan and most likely ally once Nato leaves – something Islamabad of course strenuously denies.

The leak of this report comes at a particularly sensitive time. Pakistan is already blocking the supply route to coalition forces in Afghanistan, following a Nato attack in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

With increasing pressure being heaped on Pakistan, public support here for formally ending co-operation with the West simply grows.

Aleem Maqbool
BBC News, Islamabad

The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC.

The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people.

A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government.

A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman called the accusations “ridiculous”.

“We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan and expect all other states to strictly adhere to this principle,” Abdul Basit told the BBC.

“A stable and peaceful Afghanistan is in our own interests. We cannot indulge in any activity which takes us away from achieving that objective,” he added.

The report alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

“We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI [Pakistan's intelligence service] and some extremist networks,” said US Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby, adding that the US Defence Department had not yet seen the report.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar is currently in Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

‘Informational’

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says the report – on the state of the Taliban – fully exposes for the first time the relationship between the ISI and the Taliban.

The report is based on material from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.

It notes: “Pakistan’s manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly”.

It says that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

“Senior Taliban representatives, such as Nasiruddin Haqqani, maintain residences in the immediate vicinity of ISI headquarters in Islamabad,” it said.

It quotes a senior al-Qaeda detainee as saying: “Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can’t [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching.”

“The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad.”

Our correspondent says the report seems to suggest that the Taliban feel trapped by ISI control and fear they will never escape its influence.

However, it states: “As this document is derived directly from insurgents it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical.”

Adm Mike Mullen, former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has explained Pakistan’s closeness to the Afghan Taliban by pointing to infiltration of its army by the religious right, but he also says it is part of a grand strategy to increase leverage in the region via “proxies”.

Despite Nato’s strategy to secure the country with Afghan forces, the secret document details widespread collaboration between the insurgents and Afghan police and military.

Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, said the document was “a classified internal document that is not meant to be released to the public”.

“It is a matter of policy that documents that are classified are not discussed under any circumstances,” he said.

The report also depicts the depth of continuing support among the Afghan population for the Taliban, our correspondent says.

It paints a picture of al-Qaeda’s influence diminishing but the Taliban’s influence increasing, he adds.

Taliban influence

In a damning conclusion, the document says that in the last year there has been unprecedented interest, even from members of the Afghan government, in joining the Taliban cause.

It adds: “Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption.”

The report has evidence that the Taliban are purposely hastening Nato’s withdrawal by deliberately reducing their attacks in some areas and then initiating a comprehensive hearts-and-minds campaign.

It says that in areas where Isaf has withdrawn, Taliban influence has increased, often with little or no resistance from government security forces. And in many cases, with the active help of the Afghan police and army.

When foreign soldiers leave, Afghan security forces are expected to take control.

The report says that surrender is far from their collective mindset.

“For the moment, they believe that continuing the fight and expanding Taliban governance are their only viable courses of action,” it adds.

According to the report, rifles, pistols and heavy weapons have been sold by Afghan security forces in bazaars in Pakistan.

The report adds that Taliban members “do not receive salaries or other financial incentives for their work”, but their operations are funded by the narcotics trade and they frequently take a cut from the trade.

Their main revenue, though, is from donations, and they travel around the country from door to door making no secret of their affliation, it says.

Source: BBC News

Interestingly both Pakistan and Taliban deny:

Pakistan has rejected accusations laid out in a leaked Nato report that it was secretly supporting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

The Taliban also issued a denial that it is planning peace talks with the Afghan government in Saudi Arabia.

The statements came as the leaked Nato report charged that Pakistan’s security services were backing the Taliban militia, who consider victory inevitable once Western combat troops leave in 2014.

The leak was spectacularly bad timing for Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was in Kabul for the first time since taking office last year in a bid to thaw frosty ties between the two neighbours.

“We have no hidden agenda in Afghanistan,” Khar told reporters after meeting President Hamid Karzai. “These claims have been made many, many times. Pakistan stands behind any initiative that the Afghan government takes for peace.”

The Taliban chose the same day to deny that they would soon hold talks with Karzai’s government in Saudi Arabia to end the decade-long war since they were toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001.

“There is no truth in these published reports saying that the delegation of the Islamic Emirate would meet with representatives of the Karzai government in Saudi Arabia in the near future,” the Taliban said on their website.

Afghan officials had suggested that talks in Saudi Arabia would be in addition to contacts in Qatar between the Taliban and the United States.

But it was never clear whether the Taliban, who have resisted talks with the Afghan government, or the Saudis, who have conditioned involvement on the Taliban renouncing al-Qaeda, would come on board.

Taliban negotiators have begun preliminary discussions with the United States in Qatar on plans for peace talks aimed at ending the war.

But they said in their statement on Wednesday that they had not yet “reached the negotiation phase with the US and its allies”.

“Before there are negotiations there should be a trust-building phase, which has not begun yet,” the statement said.

One of the Taliban’s demands is for the United States to free five of its leaders from detention in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

The leaked Nato report – seen by The Times newspaper and the BBC – was compiled from information gleaned from insurgent detainees and was given to Nato commanders in Afghanistan last month.

The “State of the Taliban” document claims that Islamabad, via Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency, is “intimately involved” with the insurgency and that the Taliban assume victory is inevitable once Western troops leave in 2014.

The Times quoted the report as saying the Taliban’s “strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remains intact”, despite setbacks in 2011.

“Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban,” it said.

“Once (Nato force) ISAF is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable.”

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), however, appeared to distance itself from the contents of the document.

The document “may provide some level of representative sampling of Taliban opinions and ideals but clearly should not be used as any interpretation of campaign progress”, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings told AFP.

Pakistan’s foreign minister said: “We consider any threat to Afghanistan’s independence and sovereignty as a threat to Pakistan’s existence.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan need to look forward to a relationship based on trust.”

Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul told the same news conference: “There will be no peace in the region if there is no serious regional co-operation.

“Pakistan plays a key role in Afghan peace process. I hope Ms Rabani’s visit is the beginning of a good relationship between our two countries.”

Kabul government officials declined immediate comment on the report.

Source: AFP

Editor’s note: We strongly condemn brutal execution of 15 Pakistan army soldiers by a more radical and non-conforming group of the Taliban. In Pakistan army’s terminology, any group of Taliban which attacks Afghan and NATO officials and civilians is described as good Taliban while those groups which attack Pakistan army are described as bad Taliban. Today, the bad Taliban released a graphic video of how the 15 FC soldiers were killed in a most brutal manner.

Overall this episode has three important messages:

1. Pakistan army’s policy of nurturing, training and protecting Jihadi-sectarian assets has failed. The non-uniformed, unregimented Jihadi-sectarian beasts cannot be expected to follow the strategic and operational directions of Pakistan army commanders (including the ISI and MI commanders). The brainwashed Islamo-fascist mercenaries whose Jihadi-sectarian spirits have been galvanized through a radical Saudi-Salafi-Deobandi ideology cannot be expected to honour or follow Pakistan’s national laws and army regulations and directives;

2. The Jihadi-sectarian beasts (Taliban and their affiliates with amorphous and overlapping boundaries, e.g., Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (camouflaged as Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ASWJ or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi LeJ), Jaish-e-Muhammad JeM etc) have little regard for humanity and Islam;

3. Pakistan’s pro-military establishment media, both right wingers in Urdu press and self-professed liberals in English press, have ignored or underplayed the brutal execution of Pakistani soldiers by the Taliban. The same people who were extremely noisy and aggressive after the NATO’s attack on Salala check-post have failed to condemn the Taliban’s brutality against Pakistan army and civilians (including Shias, Ahmadis, Christians, Barelvis etc). Instead, many of them are active proponents of talks and reconciliation with the Taliban. This not only shows their hypocrisy but also selective morality. (End note)

Some comments:

Razarumi Raza Rumi
Let’s talk about ..err peace..RT @etribune: #Taliban video highlights revenge on #Pakistan #military bit.ly/AcXv8v

needroos Nadir El-Edroos
Negotiations? How did that turn out -Taliban video highlights revenge on Pakistan military http://t.co/r14vARXS

NadeemfParacha Nadeem F. Paracha
Please stop drone attacks on these innocent patriots … dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2…

Oval54
The problem is that when Taliban or #AlQaeda kills Pak soldiers no one talks about it. Too many apologists bit.ly/yTkYYb

TarekFatah
A month since Taliban executed 15 Pakistani POWs, yet no outrage. Now watch the executions; perhaps.. bit.ly/yTkYYb

*******

Handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the back of the head: Taliban releases horrific video of executions of 15 Pakistani soldiers
The paramilitary troops were abducted on December 23
‘God is greatest’ the Taliban yelled as they fired AK-47 rifles
Horrific video has been copied and distributed in street markets

By JILL REILLY

22nd January 2012

A video showing fifteen Pakistani soldiers being lined up and shot dead by a firing squad has been released by the Taliban.

The paramilitary troops were abducted on December 23 in what the terror group described as an operation to avenge the deaths of insurgents in Pakistan.

The release of the horrific video is intended to serve as a warning to Pakistan’s 600,000-member army, which has failed to break the back of the insurgents despite superior firepower and a series of offensives against their strongholds in mountain regions.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Disturbing footage: The paramilitary troops were abducted by Pakistan's Taliban on December 23 and in the video, they are shown to be handcuffed, blindfolded and lined up, before being shot at point-blank range.

The abducted soldiers were stood blindfolded, handcuffed to each other on a barren hilltop as one of their bearded Taliban captors held an AK-47 rifle and spoke with fury about revenge.

‘Twelve of our comrades were besieged and mercilessly martyred in the Khyber Agency (area),’ said the militant.

‘Our pious women were also targeted. To avenge those comrades, we will kill these men. We warn the government of Pakistan that if the killing of our friends is not halted, this will be the fate of you all.’

Before death, one of the men described how dozens of Taliban fighters stormed their fort in the northwestern Tank district and kidnapped the soldiers.

‘They attacked us with rockets, killed a sentry. One ran away. The Taliban entered the fort and captured us with our weapons,’ he said, sitting in rows with other soldiers with their arms folded and legs crossed in front of Taliban banners.

‘They tied our hands, put us in a Datsun and took us away.’

The video then shows the men standing quietly. Taliban chanting can be heard. ‘We will cross all limits to avenge your blood,’ it said, referring to fighters killed by Pakistani security forces.

One of the men shoves a clip into his assault rifle and fires a few rounds into the back of the heads of a few of the soldiers. ‘God is greatest,’ the Taliban yell.

Other fighters step up and take turns pumping bullets into the men, some wearing green military uniforms. Each time a soldier collapses, the man standing next to him is pulled in that direction by the handcuffs.

The Taliban and Pakistan’s military, one of the largest in the world, have entered exploratory peace talks that raised hopes that their conflict, which has killed thousands of people, could ease, or even end one day.

But the talks have faltered, a senior Pakistani security official told Reuters, and the video – copied to compact discs and distributed in street markets in areas near the porous border with Afghanistan – is likely to enrage the army.

Formed in 2007, the TTP is an umbrella group of Pakistani militant factions operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Allied with the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, it pledged to overthrow the Pakistani government after the military started operations against militant groups.

It is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across the country and has carried out audacious attacks, including one on army headquarters near the capital Islamabad in 2009.

After the shooting ends in the video, the Taliban militants stare at the bodies slumped over on the earth.

‘If the killing of our friends is not stopped, this will be the fate of all infidel armies, God willing,’ says one militant.

Majeed Marwat, a commander of the Frontier Corps said morale among his men would always remain high despite such videos.

‘Our soldiers enlist because they want to sacrifice for the country. We are taking care of the families of the martyred soldiers,’ he told Reuters.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090165/Taliban-releases-horrific-video-executions-15-Pakistani-soldiers.html

Video report

This is with reference to the incident at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS ) where two innocent lives were lost. I have no words to condemn this sad incident and what is worse is that this is not first incident of its kind — eight months back, a trained group of 52 deadly terrorists of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP ) had planned to blow up the PIMS building to assassinate President Asif Ali Zardari during his visit to see his ailing father Hakim Ali Zardari. That plot was to avenge Pakistan’s policy on the war on terror, but the security agencies foiled the plot and arrested four terrorists from the hospital premises ahead of the execution of their plot. It was sad that being the president of Pakistan, Mr Zardari was not able to visit his ailing father. If the safety of the president was at risk, then what about that of the ordinary citizens? I think the administration of PIMS is so incompetent that the premises have become a sort of safe haven for terrorists and criminals, especially the doctors’ hostels (medical officers and postgraduates), where rooms are allotted to unconcerned persons and doctors are deprived of hostels. With unauthorised people having access to the hostels, it is not surprising that killings are taking place there. The president, prime minister and honourable chief justice of Pakistan should take notice of this killing incident and order investigations so that the institution is made safe once again and such tragic incidents are averted in the future. (Source: Daily Times)

First week of January, we start our new year by discovering the bodies of 15 Pakistani soldiers who had been kidnapped in December. According to the news reported by various newspapers, a spokes person of Taliban by the name of

Well considering the unimportance of this news (since we are much more interested in the memo gate), in the same week 10 more bodies have been found in the north-west border region.

Now just imagine, for a minute, that in the above news headlines, the word Taliban is replaced by NATO. Here is the reaction both from the media and the civil society: HOW DARE THEY TOUCH OUR JAWANS? THE WHOLE NATION IS AWAKENED! HUM EENT KA JAWAB PATHAR SAY DAIN GAI! And practically to show our outrage, we are going to change our display pictures on twitter because apparently that’s pretty much the end of our ghairat (yeah that will show those bloody Americans!).

The truth of the matter is that we are so confused. Whenever a Muslim kills a fellow Muslim, we always have reasons. They are not bad people, they are fighting occupation, it is a reaction to the loss of their families, but never for once would we create a similar uproar as that against the attacks of US military? Why is it so hard to call wrong, wrong despite the fact that whoever does it? Are the soldiers killed by Taliban not the sons of this mitti? Don’t their children will feel the absence of their father? Won’t their wives and mothers be grieved by the loss? WHY oh WHY do we not feel their pain?

Honestly I am one of those people who are one of the staunchest opponents of this bogus “war on terror.” It is a war that started without a proper strategy, had no idea of its goals, and apparently now the proponents of this war have realized that they have been fighting those for 10 years who are not even their enemy (Lovely!!!). However, the fact remains that US is a super-power and obviously it will always look to protect its interests in the region. While we can sit at our homes criticizing and blaming US for all its failed policies, stop for a minute and see who is actually suffering the most as a result.

Now I know that critics would say that they kill our soldiers because they are fighting the war on America’s behalf and America is an occupier. While I fully agree that US has no right to be in Afghanistan, since it has no strategy (like always) and never had any on how to win this war, and we made a big mistake by allying with US, it is also true that now this war on terror is Pakistan’s war, and the sooner we realize it the better. US won’t stay in this region forever, for them it is so easy to label people as enemy, friends, and terrorists as it suits them and will do whatever it takes to minimize its own loss and get out of the region. It is however, a great question of concern for Pakistanis because like always, they would be left to deal with the mess. Now, this is what Pakistani people really need to understand that your criticism of US should not make you an apologetic for the horrendous activities and ideologies of Taliban which are one of the biggest threats that our country is facing today.

The way we want to deal with this problem is going to determine our character as a nation. We can either apologize for those who are killing our people or for once, we can be on the right side of history and say ENOUGH!!!! Leave our country alone. Whatever is your ideology, your religion, or your grievances; you have no right to kill our people. Why do we seem to care or have sympathy for those who have no regard for lives of our fellow Pakistanis? Why should we be apologetic for the actions of those who don’t seem to give a damn about our country? The silence that this country shows over the acts of militants is appalling. Khuda kay liye, iss mulk kay liye BOL!!!

Related post: Shamsul Anwar’s fraudulent story has a few lessons for us

Waiting to receive pieces of daughter’s dead body

by Shakeel Anjum

Source: The News, 10 January 2011

She was bitterly crying on phone begging for her life in the captivity, as she had seen her 16-year-old brother on a CD being slaughtered by kidnappers and pieces of his dead body were sent to her father by them some six years back.

Where criminals are so powerful that they manage to make the law enforcement agencies helpless and paralyse the system, the only way left for people like Shamsul Anwar is to obey them. What he did for the nation against terrorists and what he got in return from the nation on saving lives of hundreds of worshippers in a mosque as a Pakistani is a big question.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six … countdown has started on the turn of his daughter to be slaughtered by the captors as the poor father is not in a position to pay them a huge ransom of Rs1.8 million. But he is mentally ready to receive pieces of his daughter. The captors have given him a deadline for payment of ransom and warned that his daughter would be slaughtered if he fails to meet the deadline of January 12, 2012. “Be ready to receive the pieces of your daughter too,” they warned. God forbid, he would face another doomsday on January 12, if he fails to pay the ransom.

When he was asked, the captors linked with some terrorist outfits, would kill his daughter on the publication of this report, he said, “This is my last attempt to save the life of my young daughter. In either way, I am mentally prepared to receive another gunny bag filled with pieces of my daughter’s remains.”

“I beg for the life of my young daughter from judicial, political, military and government bosses. I am a voiceless man,” Shamsul Anwar said. The only question left is whether he should proud to be a Pakistani after he was facing the trauma of life-spoiling attacks by the ‘terrorist outfits’.

The victim narrating his shocking tale told ‘The News’, “I am Shamsul Anwar and has served in the Pakistan Army as a ‘Lance Naik’ in 24-Baloch Regiment for over 17 years and got retired in 1992.

“I hail from Khasar Tang, Balool Khail, Tehsil and District Nowshera, and settled in Dhoke Gujran, Misrial Road, Rawalpindi, after my retirement as my father was running a construction business in Rawalpindi, but I preferred the transport business. I, later, included seven public transport vehicles, including cabs, in my squad and built two houses in the neighbourhood and rented out three portions while kept one portion with me to live with my wife and nine children, including two twin daughters — Madina Anwar and Mubin Anwar, 14 — and seven sons — Mohammad Yaseen Anwar, 16; Faizullah, 14; Sajid Anwar, 12; Wahed Anwar, 11; Abubakr Siddique, 9; Ibadat Anwar, 7, and 4-year-old Mohammad Mustafa.

“It was 1st of January, 2001 when I entered the Jamia Masjid of Dhoke Gujran at Misrial Road, Rawalpindi, at about 2:10 p.m. when the ‘imam’ was reciting ‘khutba’ and I was late. I rushed to the basement of the mosque to perform ablution (‘wazu’) where I saw a man who was planting some explosives packed in a steel box and he was busy in plugging wires into the detonation device. As I was an army personnel and had been serving with bomb disposal unit, I sensed the danger. I clutched the ‘terrorist’ from the back without asking any question or giving him any warning as he had plugged one wire into the device and remaining three were in his hands and he was about to put it into the detonator. I started shouting for help but nobody listened to my cries as the ‘khutba’ was being recited on the loudspeaker. In the meantime, the terrorist, carrying a gun, asked me to leave him otherwise he would shoot me but I refused to free him and entangled my left leg in between his two legs as he could not somersault me. After he observed that I was not going to release him, he started firing aiming at my leg and emptied his revolver. I sustained three bullets in my left leg and remaining three missed.

“Meanwhile, some worshippers gathered there and grabbed him as I told people that his revolver was empty. The terrorist warned me that he would teach me a lesson and make me an example. I was shifted to the CMH and the ‘terrorist’ was taken to an undisclosed place by the agencies. As many as 17 terrorists of the outfit were arrested on information provided by the nabbed ‘terrorist’. I remained under treatment for about a month and sent home with a team of security personnel of the army commanded by a JCO. The security personnel remained with me for about a year and protected my family and me stringently. Finally, the security was withdrawn.

“After about five years of the episode, the ‘terrorist outfit’ decided to take revenge and kidnapped my two sons — Mohammad Yaseen, 16, a student of 10th class, and Faizullah, 14, a 9th class student of Noor School in Dhoke Gujran — on May 15, 2006 from their school in the presence of teachers and students in broad daylight. The captors were three in number.

“I rushed to the Westridge Police Station but the SHO humiliated me and refused to take up the case, terming it a concocted story. Then, I had no option but to seek help from army where I had served for over 17 years. I contacted the Army Centre and went to BRC Centre in Abbottabad but they couldn’t help me out.

“In the meanwhile, the ‘terrorists’ contacted me on my mobile number in November 2006 after about six months of the kidnapping of my sons and demanded Rs1.4 million as ransom for the release of my sons with the threat that they would kill my sons if I informed police. I again decided to contact my ex-department and went to the commander of 4-Corps, Peshawar, who listened to me kindly and referred me to the commander of 11-Corps in Peshawar. The corps commander took immediate action and asked the political agent (PA) to take action against the ‘terrorist outfit’ active in Kurram Agency. When I met with the PA, he suggested to pay them ransom so that they could arrest the captors red-handed after the safe release of my sons but in the case of direct raid, they could kill my sons. The suggestion was good but not feasible for me, as I had not so much amount to pay the ransom to get my sons free from their trap. I remained in Kurram Agency for three days and the ‘terrorists’ kept eye on my activities as I visited the office of PA regularly. However, I came back to Rawalpindi and started collecting the amount from different sources.

“After a long pause, the captors contacted me on my mobile phone at 4 p.m. in the last week of November 2006 and said that I had cheated them and played smart against them, saying that as a reprimand, they are sending me the dead body of my son. They asked me to lift the remains of my son in a gunny bag from Shally Valley at Misrial Road. I took some neighbours with me without informing police, as police was not cooperating with me, and traced the gunny bag at about 9 p.m. lying in the low-lying area with a CD. He was my eldest son, 16-year-old Mohammad Yaseen Anwar who was slaughtered and cut into pieces. They also sent a video in which they captured the scenes of slaughtering and sawing. They put Yaseen alive on the saw-machine (wood-sawing machine) and sawed him into two pieces from middle of his head in front of my younger son 14-year-old Faizullah.

“Another episode started when the captors contacted me a couple of weeks after the burial of my son and repeated their demand of Rs1.4 million ransom with warning that my second son would be killed if I failed to meet the deadline. I had no option but to pay them ransom because I had no nerve to receive another gunny bag containing the pieces of my second son because I had found the law enforcement agencies very weak and the criminals very powerful who threw the remains of my son in my area after killing him. However, I sold out my house and some vehicles to meet the demand of ransom. So, I left for Peshawar on their direction and reached near Haji Camp in Peshawar where they asked me to wait but as I reached there, they asked me to reach Kurram Agency. I hired a taxi and arrived at the said location. In their next call, they asked me to leave the taxi and walk straight in a street where a red car was parked, put the money in the red car and wait for our next call. I followed their directions and started waiting for their call. After a few hours, they asked me to get my son from a low-lying area near mountains (Kala Paharh) in Kurram Agency. I rushed to the tip-off place but found nothing. I kept running here and there for three days but couldn’t trace my son. Finally, they informed me that my son was standing near main entrance of Kurram Agency and I found him there. He was burning with high fever when I got him. I took him to Rawalpindi and contacted the corps commander, Rawalpindi, who directed me to take the boy to the Corp Headquarters, Lahore, and finally admitted to the CMH where the doctors diagnosed blood cancer because the captors have injected intoxicating medicines into his body during one-year detention. I met Imran Khan for providing help in the treatment. He gave me Rs20,000 with a reference chit for Shaukat Khanum Hospital but the administration gave me the estimate of Rs1.2 million for the treatment. However, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan helped me a lot and provided financial assistance for the treatment of my ailing son. I came back to Rawalpindi and again contacted the surgeon general who told me that the only treatment was ‘bone marrow transplant’ which costs Rs3.2 million. I collected the money after selling my whole property for the surgery, which was successful.”

This was not the end of the miserable and painful story of Shamsul Anwar. The ‘terrorists’ again hit him and kidnapped his 14-year-old daughter, Madina Anwar on May 17, 2011 from her school at Misrial Road and shifted her to Kurram Agency. He reported to police and lodged a complaint with the SSP but they did nothing.

After a couple of days, he received a call from the captors who demanded Rs1.8 million for her safe release. “I am sick and tired, having no resources to generate finances.”

But Shamsul Anwar is still looking for a miracle and waiting for help from the heavens amidst cries of his daughter, who is in captivity. The brave man is waiting for the climax of the unending horrific tale. He can be contacted on his mobile phone number 0346-5524259 for any kind of help.

Mr Abbasi  has begun to write series of articles relating to NATO soldiers, Pakistan’s blockage of supply-lines and diaper scarcity. He candidly confesses that he got information from a Google search, blogs etc that US Army a. Wears Diapers and b. that they are facing shortage due to recent supplies blockage.Now a similar Google research by myself (yes I too have such journalistic skills) did lead to some diaper and soldier related material, but mostly relating to Israeli solders

Here is the video

this video of course is trying to demoralise Israelis, based on information fact or otherwise – but anyway. . there is more videos on Israeli soldiers and diapers with a cleric claiming same

and a bizarre propaganda by a British Newspaper that Chinese solders wore diapers at Olympics.

Then I realised, I am not a very senior journalist, I can other internet resources apart from blogs and tweets, like find out what kits soldiers really wear. So here is a site that extensively numerates the Soldier’s uniform – https://peosoldier.army.mil/equipment/

Problem is I didn’t find any diapers, and I looked as much as I could – the cunning Americans must have hidden this vital information after blockage.

Why would they hide such a trivial information, I hear you ask? Well as analysed by Mr. Abbasi, this diaper shortage is so disastrous that Americans are now losing the war (and their bowels) Pakistan has thus with one act made Americans come to the negotiation table – You are welcome Taliban!

Subsequent to his article being a rave all over the internet – search “diaper, NATO” on google and first result you would get is Mr. Abbasi’s piece, such is the affect of this one article (there is another weak attempt, ‘US Soldiers running out of pampers’  but it lacks the ‘Ansar punch’)

Mr Abbasi has now wrote another report, after finally his unending sms and calls to American Embassy and ISAF has been responded, and he has been told by the Embassy that Soldiers “Don’t wear diapers”. But we know Americans lie through their teeth, even as their stomach churns as a give away. Mr Abbasi also quotes that Ms. Sherin Mazari of PTI is offering humanitarian aid to Americans in shape of these diapers. This may appear to be a tongue in cheek jab, but I am not sure, as she does also state that her suggestion would help the Pakistani economy. This is the first concrete suggestion by PTI on this issue. They are finally becoming mature and offering real alternative suggestions now as an opposition party should. So I am not sure if Ms. Mazari was being ironic or is this something to do with Khan’s sahib’s reconciliation policy with all those he has so far maligned to get popular.

The two articles by Mr. Abbasi are linked here…

“Nato troops get ‘nappy rash’Face the pain of blocked diapers”

“US embassy denies troops using diapers”

Pashtuns remain a convenient canon-fodder in Pakistan army's Jihad Enterprise.

Related post: A month since Taliban executed 15 Pakistani soldiers, yet no outrage. Now watch the executions; perhaps…

Editor’s note: In the following article published in Daily Times, Farhat Taj highlights a case of selective morality and hypocrisy recently demonstrated by Pakistan army and its right-wing as well as “liberal” affiliates in Pakistani media by remaining silent on the massacre of at least 15 soldiers kidnapped by the Taliban. According to details, Taliban militants attacked a Frontier Constabulary (FC) fort at Mulazai, Tank on December 22, and took 15 FC men hostage after killing two soldiers. Reportedly, the Taliban had shifted the hostages to North Waziristan where their dead bodies were found three days ago. However, compared to Pakistan army and pro-army media, urban chatterers and politicians’ outrage on the killing of 24 soldiers in a NATO attack in November, the news of the cold blooded kidnapping and subsequent slaying of 15 soldiers was much suppressed in both Urdu and English press and the reaction by army and pro-army political class and liberal activists was almost absent. As Taj notes, it appears that what matters is who killed the soldiers. If the killer is the US, they will condemn with all they have. If the killer is the Taliban, they will forgive and forget. Many such as Imran Khan, Munawar Hasan, General Hamid Gul and Judge Iftikhar Chaudhry will even blame the US for the acts of terror committed and publicly owned by the Taliban.

We invite our readers to the following recent comment left by an FC serviceman on an ET article:

I am performing duty in the same frontier constabulary of which these 15 personnel embraced shahadat [martyrdom]. I appreciate this effort on the part of the author … we are very selective while condemning some acts and castigating their perpetrators. No one in media, nor our so called empathetic leaders expressed anything to sympathise with the bereaved families of these martyrs; let alone rebuking those who, without any compunction, claim responsibility for this barbaric act. And the way those dead bodies were mutilated pronounce the death of any scruples whatever existing on the part of these TTP people. What Martin Luther King remarked during his struggle for civil rights for Blacks in 1960s that ‘in the end it is not the words of enemies but the silence of friends that he would remember’, stands valid in the wake of this gory tale of killing of sons of the soil. This silence on the part of media gurus, political pundits, self styled leaders, and ever vibrant ‘civil society’ speaks volumes of our ‘agenda-pursuing’ lives. we speak only when we are confident that it pays off in popularity, and political mileage..otherwise we profess that ‘Silence is Golden.’

Ironically, the Taliban sent this gift while Pakistan army (Deep State) is using all types of political, diplomatic and strategic pressure to provide legitimacy to its strategic assets, i.e, Taliban, e.g., by opening their diplomatic offices in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. This then validates LUBP’s principled stance that any measures to provide legitimacy to the Taliban and their affiliates will be counter-productive as well as criminal unless the Taliban explicitly agree to abide by international laws and the UN conventions on human rights. (End note)

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Discrimination against FC soldiers
by Farhat Taj

In November, 24 Pakistani army soldiers were killed by the Afghanistan-based US and NATO forces in a border attack at Salala checkpost in FATA. The Pakistani media, banned militant organisations, religious political parties and urban middle class as well as liberal Pakistanis continue to condemn the attack on a daily basis. More than a month since the incident the public demonstrations against it continue to take place in the country. Pakistan has sought an apology from the US for the attack. The incident has worsened Pak-US relations, which were already at one of the lowest points in history.

Compare this grandiose response with the response given to the killing of almost the same number of Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary soldiers killed by the militants in Tank and Bannu a month after the US killing of the Pakistani army soldiers. The difference could not be starker. The government, the military, the media, militant organisations, right-wing political parties, middle class and liberal Pakistanis stand united in silence over this incident as if it never happened or is not worth paying attention to. Neither the government has asked for an apology from the Taliban nor has it expressed the resolve to bring the killers of the FC soldiers to justice. If the past record of the government is anything to go by, one must forget about justice for the affected FC families. In May 2011, over 70 FC recruits were most brutally killed in twin suicide attacks in Charsadda district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. By 2010, over 700 FC soldiers have been killed in the war on terror. It seems justice for the FC soldiers killed or injured by the Taliban or for their families have never been even an issue. Are the FC soldiers less worthy than the soldiers of the Pakistan Army? Are the sufferings of the families of the FC soldiers any less than the sufferings of the families of the army soldiers? What reasons explain the totally different Pakistani response to the two equally brutal killings?

One explanation can be that the killing of the soldiers, whether FC or the Pakistan Army, really does not matter for those Pakistanis who continue to protest the border incident at Salala checkpost. What matters is who killed the soldiers. If the killer is the US, they will condemn with all they have. If the killer is the Taliban, they will forgive and forget. Many will even blame the US for the acts of terror committed and publicly owned by the Taliban. This is the logical outcome of Pakistan’s role as a hostile ally in the war on terror whereby it fights with the US against the militant groups but at the same time nurtures the militants as proxies against the US. It is obvious that this dubious role is neither capable of pleasing the US nor all of the proxies as some among them might feel cheated and violently react, especially those who are no more wanted by the military establishment that has tried to eliminate them in the US drone attacks or in mysterious targeted killings by Pakistani spies. The bottom line is that publicly anti-Americanism has to be kept going to support the Pakistani Generals in dealing with the US no matter how many Pakistani soldiers or innocent Pakistanis have been killed by the disgruntled proxy elements or by ‘design’ by their state handlers to show to the world that Pakistan is really paying the price for participation in the war on terror. This is because the US and Pakistan are not on the same page in terms of strategic objectives in Afghanistan.

The other reason that explains the silence over the brutal killings of the FC soldiers is their Pashtun identity. Let me say at the outset that many soldiers of the Pakistan Army are Pashtuns who have been giving their lives in the line of their professional duty along with their colleagues from other ethnicities. There has been an ethnic profiling of the Pashtun soldiers and officers of the Pakistan Army in a malicious manner whereby their sympathies have been associated with the Taliban while absolving the non-Pashtun soldiers and officers of any pro-Taliban views, especially the Punjabis in the army. They were portrayed as the only soldiers and officers in the army who have refused to perform their professional responsibilities or have hindered the army high command from taking action against the Taliban due to their Taliban sympathies. Well known Pakistani journalists have been promoting this misleading as well as degrading view about the Pashtuns in the Pakistan Army. As far as I know, the ISPR never came forward to reject this propaganda against the Pashtun soldiers and officers. This leaves one wondering whether the army was endorsing the propaganda against the professional loyalties of its own soldiers and officers from a specific ethnic group. I will come back to this issue on some other occasion. Now I will only focus on the FC soldiers, whose rank and file and non-officer cadre, unlike the Pakistan Army, are exclusively drawn from the Pashtun tribes in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while its officer cadre is exclusively drawn from the Pakistan Army.

The FC is split into two independent forces: FC Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FC Balochistan. Both FCs are individually led by senior level military officers from the Pakistan Army. The force is under a strict military discipline and its immediate command remains in the hands of the commissioned army officers appointed on deputation from the Pakistan Army. In theory, the FC is meant to be assisting the regular armed forces of Pakistan on need basis. In practice, however, the FC remains part and parcel of the powerful military-intelligence complex of Pakistan that has remained beyond the control of any civilian government of the country. On the one hand the FC is used to brutally suppress any opposition to the military establishment of Pakistan, no matter how genuine the opposition may be, such as the use of FC in suppression of the ongoing nationalist resistance in Balochistan. On the other hand, the FC soldiers are mercilessly exposed to the worst kinds of brutalities from the battle-hardened militants in pursuit of the strategic objectives in Afghanistan, such as the war on terror, while at the same time they are subjected to a malicious propaganda linking their sympathies with the Taliban rather than the Pakistani state.

he Frontier Corps (FC) is the subject of different controversies in the ongoing security crises in Pakistan. In Balochistan, the FC has long been accused of executing the ‘kill and dump’ policy of Baloch nationalists and political activists pursued by the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies. Within Balochistan, which remains the exclusive domain of the Pakistani military, the FC soldiers are hated as they are seen as an outside force terrorising the Baloch struggling for their rights.

In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), another area of Pakistan that remains the absolute domain of Pakistan’s army-intelligence complex, the FC soldiers have been the subject of a totally different controversy: their alleged ‘loyalty’ to the Taliban due to ethnic bonds, against the call of their professional as well as citizenship responsibilities to the Pakistani state in the war on terror. The hostile role of the Pakistani army and intelligence agencies in the war on terror whereby they ostensibly fight with the US and NATO, but covertly nurture and strengthen the Taliban to defeat the allied forces in Afghanistan, is well known to the world. In this regard the FC soldiers have been abused in three manners. One, they have been made to facilitate cross-border infiltrations of al Qaeda-led Taliban from FATA into Afghanistan for attacks on the US, NATO and Afghan forces. Two, they have been left defenceless to be tortured to death in the most brutal manner by the ‘strategic assets’, the Taliban, to show to the world that Pakistan is really paying the price of the war on terror. Three, when Pakistan was confronted with evidence by the allied forces that FC soldiers have been giving ‘direct fire cover’ to the Taliban to enter Afghanistan, the military resorted, through its voices in the media, to the lame excuse of the ‘sympathy factor’ of the FC soldiers with the Taliban as a means to sustain its plausible deniability of its ties with the Taliban.

Many Pakistani journalists have been spreading misleading as well malicious propaganda that the FC soldiers have been siding with the Taliban on supposedly shared ethnic grounds. Many foreign authors, in violation of professional standards in their work, peddled the same line without verifying the facts on the ground. Moreover, these writers, while attributing the FC soldiers’ loyalties to the Taliban on ethnic basis, ignored the multitude of the Punjabi Taliban in FATA. Above all, the writers have never been able to produce concrete evidence of the soldiers’ ethnic loyalties to the Taliban.

The FC soldiers’ ethnic loyalty factor is baseless when seen from the way the FC is structured. The FC is under a strict military discipline and its immediate command remains in the hands of commissioned army officers appointed on deputation from the Pakistan Army. Various FC units are named after the administrative units in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, such as Khyber Rifles (Khyber Agency), Mohmand Scouts (Mohmand Agency), Dir Scouts (district Dir), Chitral Scouts (district Chitral), etc. Loyalty of an individual in the Pakhtun tribal society — which is a patchwork of tribes, sub-tribes, clans and sub-clans — goes as far as his/her tribe, sub-tribe and even clan or sub-clan. But the FC soldiers hardly operate in the area of their own tribe, sub-tribe, clan or sub-clan. Dir Scouts, for example, do not necessarily draw its soldiers from the tribes, sub-tribes, clans or sub-clans based in district Dir. The force is headquartered in Dir but draws its rank and file from various Pakhtun tribes across Pakistan. This contradicts the claim of ethnic tribal loyalty of the FC soldiers with the Taliban, even if we ignore the strict military command and control over the FC soldiers for a moment.

The FC remains an effective tool of execution of oppressive or otherwise state policies since the establishment of this force in British times. The FC soldiers never hesitate to impose with or without violent means the state policies on Pakhtun or non-Pakhtun alike. Also, the FC’s role has actually been praised by the UN advisor to District Dir Development Project against poppy cultivation in the area. No FC soldier can dare to assist any non-state actor without clear directions by their commanding officers. Thus, any help provided by the FC soldiers to the Taliban could not have been without direct orders from the Pakistan Army officers commanding the soldiers. There might have been isolated cases of insubordination, which might also happen in the Pakistan Army or for that matter in any uniformed force around the world.

All over FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are graves of FC soldiers who died for the sake of the state fighting against the Taliban. While the Pakistan Army has a relatively better package for families of the officers and soldiers killed in the line of duty, the families of the FC soldiers are in many cases left to lick their wounds. Sometime back I wrote a piece in this newspaper about the plight of the internally displaced family of an FC recruit in Orakzai brutally killed by the Taliban. In response to the piece, the FC authorities provided some financial help to the family. Some days ago a private Pakistani TV channel aired the story of an injured FC soldier, who being unable to work due to the injuries he suffered in clashes with the Taliban, has made his teenage daughter a rickshaw driver to earn for the family’s survival. The TV report informed that despite media coverage, no one has come forward from all over Pakistan, including of course the FC authorities, to help this poor family that is under immense mental and financial pressure caused in the line of duty to the state, not loyalty to the Taliban. Some philanthropists in Pakistan should come forward to help the family, including getting the minor girl back to school that she had to leave to take up the unusual job of a rickshaw driver after her father was injured.

As I write these lines, an extremely sad news is coming that the Taliban have tortured to death 15 FC soldiers they had kidnapped sometime back. There is no uproar in the Pakistani media or political circles about these deaths. But there has never been any moral or political unease over FC deaths in Pakistan. The FC soldiers will continue to be abused as long as the Generals control Pakistan. They will be tortured to death. They will be subjected to malicious propaganda to sustain the state’s plausible deniability. They will be used to terrorise the Baloch. This is a norm in Pakistan. The authors writing on FC soldiers are expected to use their analytical skills to see beyond the facade of death and torture surrounding the FC soldiers and be critical of arguments that depict the FC soldiers as anything more than a means to execute the state’s policies. The FC soldiers are also victims of state terrorism.

Adding to the miseries of Hazara Shias, who are already living under the severe kind of persecution and violence in Pakistani provincial capital Quetta at the hands of radical Shia haters i.e. likes of Malik Ishaq who had been released earlier this year as a result of so called peace deal between Pakistani security establishment and the banned outfits to placate the sectarian organization, Obama administration is all set to hand over another notorious Shia killer Mullah Mohammed Fazl to Afghanistan as part of a long-shot bid to improve prospects of peace deal in Afghanistan. Mullah Mohammed Fazl is a high risk detainee held at Guantanamo Bay military prison since earlier 2002. Mullah was held responsible by the UN for the massacre of thousands of Hazara Shias in Bamian and Yakaolang between 1998 and 2001 during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The Obama administration is considering transferring to Afghan custody a senior Taliban official suspected of major human rights abuses as part of a long-shot bid to improve the prospects of a peace deal in Afghanistan, Reuters has learned.

The potential hand-over of Mohammed Fazl, a ‘high-risk detainee’ held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison since early 2002, has set off alarms on Capitol Hill and among some U.S. intelligence officials.

As a senior commander of the Taliban army, Fazl is alleged to be responsible for the killing of thousands of Afghanistan’s minority Shi’ite Muslims between 1998 and 2001.

According to U.S. military documents made public by WikiLeaks, he was also on the scene of a Nov. 2001 prison riot that killed CIA operative Johnny Micheal Spann, the first American who died in combat in the Afghan war. There is no evidence, however, that Fazl played any direct role in Spann’s death.

Senior U.S. officials have said their 10-month-long effort to set up substantive negotiations between the weak government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban has reached a make-or-break moment. Reuters reported earlier this month that they are proposing an exchange of “confidence-building measures,” including the transfer of five detainees from Guantanamo and the establishment of a Taliban office outside of Afghanistan.

Now Reuters has learned from U.S. government sources the identity of one of the five detainees in question.

The detainees, the officials emphasized, would not be set free, but remain in some sort of further custody. It is unclear precisely what conditions they would be held under.

In response to inquiries by Reuters, a senior administration official said that the release of Fazl and four other Taliban members had been requested by the Afghan government and Taliban representatives as far back as 2005.

The debate surrounding the White House’s consideration of high-profile prisoners such as Fazl illustrates the delicate course it must tread both at home and abroad as it seeks to move the nascent peace process ahead.

One U.S. intelligence official said there had been intense bipartisan opposition in Congress to the proposed transfer.

“I can tell you that the hair on the back of my neck went up when they walked in with this a month ago, and there’s been very, very strong letters fired off to the administration,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The senior administration official confirmed that the White House has received letters from lawmakers on the issue. “We will not characterize classified Congressional correspondence, but what is clear is the President’s order to us to continue to discuss these important matters with Congress,” the official said.

Even supporters of a controversial deal with the Taliban – a fundamentalist group that refers to Americans as infidels and which is still killing U.S., NATO and Afghan soldiers on the battlefield – say the odds of striking an accord are slim.

Critics of Obama’s peace initiative remain deeply skeptical of the Taliban’s willingness to negotiate, given that the West’s intent to pull out most troops after 2014 could give insurgents a chance to reclaim lost territory or push the weak Kabul government toward collapse.

The politically charged nature of the initiative was on display this month when the Karzai government angrily recalled its ambassador from Doha and complained Kabul was being cut out of U.S.-led efforts to establish a Taliban office in Qatar.

U.S. officials appear to have smoothed things over with Karzai since then. Karzai’s High Peace Council is signaling it would accept a liaison office for the Taliban office in Qatar – but also warning foreign powers that they cannot keep the Afghan government on the margins.

The detainee transfer may be even more politically explosive for the White House. In discussing the proposal, U.S. officials have stressed the move would be a ‘national decision’ made in consultation with the U.S. Congress.

Obama is expected to soon sign into law a defense authorization bill whose provisions would broaden the military’s power over terrorist detainees and require the Pentagon to certify in most cases that certain security conditions will be met before Guantanamo prisoners can be sent home.

The mere idea of such a transfer is already raising hackles on Capitol Hill, where one key senator last week cautioned the administration against negotiating with “terrorists.”

Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said such detainees would “likely continue to pose a threat to the United States” even once they were transferred.

POTENTIAL MAELSTROM

In February, the Afghan High Peace Council named a half-dozen it wanted released as a goodwill gesture. The list included Fazl; senior Taliban military commander Noorullah Noori; former deputy intelligence minister Abdul Haq Wasiq; and Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former interior minister.

All but Khairkhwa were sent to Guantanamo on January 11, 2002, according to the military documents, meaning they were among the first prisoners sent there.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA and White House official, said Fazl was alleged to have been involved in ‘very ugly’ violence against Shi’ites, including members of the Hazara ethnic minority, beginning in the late 1990s, and the deaths of Iranian diplomats and journalists at the Iranian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998.

Michael Semple, a former UN official with more than two decades of experience in Afghanistan, said Fazl commanded thousands of Taliban soldiers at a time when its army carried out massacres of Shi’ites. “If you’re head of an army that carries out a massacre, even if you’re not actually there, you are implicated by virtue of command and control responsibility,” he said.

He added: “However it does not serve the interests of justice selectively to hold Taliban to account, while so many other figures accused of past crimes are happily reintegrated in Kabul.”

Some U.S. military documents – select documents have been released, others were leaked – indicate that Fazl denied being a senior Taliban official and says he only commanded 50 or 60 men. But the overall picture of his role is unclear from the documents which have become public.

Richard Kammen is an Indiana lawyer who has nominally represented Fazl; the detainee did not want an attorney.

“Based upon the public information with which I’m familiar, it would appear his role in things back in 2001 has been significantly exaggerated by the government,” Kammen said.

According to the documents, Fazl and Noori surrendered to Abdul Rashid Dostum, now Afghanistan’s army chief of staff but at the time a powerful warlord battling against the Taliban, in northern Afghanistan in November 2001.

While the men were being held at the historic Qala-i-Jani fortress in Mazar-i-Sharif, Taliban prisoners revolted against their captors from the Northern Alliance, the anti-Taliban coalition.

“Dostum brought (Fazl and Noori) to the bunker to ask the prisoners to surrender; detainee and (Noori) refused,” the detainee assessment from a 2008 document read.

Spann, a one-time Marine captain who was sent to Afghanistan as a CIA operative in the fall of 2001, was trying to locate al Qaeda operatives at the Mazar fortress among a large group of Taliban soldiers who had surrendered, according to the CIA and media reports at the time. When the Taliban prisoners began to riot – many of them were apparently armed – Spann was surrounded and killed. After a bloody, multi-day battle his body was later found booby-trapped.

Even a loose association between Fazl and Spann’s death – despite the fact there is nothing to suggest he was directly involved – is likely to increase the temperature of the debate in Washington.

What could be problematic for some Afghans is Fazl’s identification with the killing of civilians in central and northern Afghanistan.

“The composition and timing of any release has got to pay attention to Northern Alliance concerns,” Semple said.

Buy-in from supporters of that alliance – and from those wary of a resurgent Taliban – will be key in making a peace deal stick, if one can be had.

Despite the congressional concerns that released Taliban will return to the battlefield, Semple said it was unlikely even prisoners like Fazl – who truly was a significant military figure for the Taliban – would alter that equation.

“These people are not going to make a real contribution to the Taliban war effort even if they are able to go over to Quetta and rejoin the fight. It’s not risky in battlefield terms; it’s only risky in U.S. political terms.” (Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria, Patrick Worsnip and Jane Sutton; editing by Claudia Parsons)

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/30/mohammed-fazl-hand-over-considered_n_1175333.html

According to the Wikileaks cable (http://wikileaks.ch/gitmo/pdf/af/us9af-000007dp.pdf) released earlier this year, the detainee (Mullah Mohammed Fazl’s) file tells that:

“Detainee was the Taliban Deputy Minister of Defense during Operation Enduring Freedom and is an admitted senior commander who served as Chief of Staff of the Taliban Army and as a commander of the 22nd Division. Detainee is wanted by the UN for possible war crimes including the murder of thousands of Shiites. Detainee was associated with terrorist groups currently opposing US and Coalition forces.”  

“Detainee and his mother moved from Uruzgan Province to Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan (PK) during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989). In Pakistan, detainee received six years of religious training at the Rabinyah Madrassa in Quetta, PK”. 

“Detainee is an admitted senior official of the Taliban government and army and was last assigned to the position of Deputy Minister of Defense. Detainee also served as Chief of Staff of the Taliban Army and a commander of the 22nd Division. Detainee is wanted by the UN for possible war crimes including the murder of thousands of Shiites.”

“Detainee was implicated in the murder of thousands of Shiites in northern Afghanistan during the Taliban reign. When asked about the murders, detainee and AF-006 did not express any regret and stated they did what they needed to do in their struggle to establish their ideal state.” 

“Shortly after detainee’s surrender to Northern Alliance forces, Northern Alliance commanders discussed giving detainee amnesty. However, some Northern Alliance commanders strongly opposed amnesty for detainee, because he and Dadullah Lang were allegedly responsible for massacres at Yakawlang, Bamyan Province, AF, in which several hundred civilians were killed.” 

The longstanding conflict of Pakistani security establishment, The Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and the Americans in Afghanistan is thriving now at the expense of innocent Shias living under fear of death on both sides of Afpak border. Recent killing of around one hundred innocent Shias in Afghanistan on the occasion of Ashura, perpetrated by the LeJ-Alaalmi,  seems to be the tip of the iceberg that points out to the state of Shias getting wretched in coming days once the US troops leave Afghan land. To hand over the notorious convicts of Shia massacre in Afghanistan like Mullah Mohammed Fazl may end up in spate of sectarian violence in Afghanistan where Shias already are living as oppressed and persecuted community vis-à-vis in Pakistan where so-called peace deals with blood-thirsty monsters have brought a new wave of sectarian violence against Shias.

Video: Oppression of Hazara in Afghanistan